Open PowerPoint. On your first slide, write your thesis/main idea.
For each additional slide, put the main ideas for each of your supporting details.
Find images (Google, Bing, Microsoft clip art) to illustrate your slides with pictures that relate to your points.
Put your conclusion on your final slide.
Sharpen your prose by practicing poetry:
Work on word choice, figurative language, and descriptive writing through poetry. - Write a 6-Room poem (click on the link for directions and examples).
Paint a Portrait
This is a great exercise for practicing revision, sentence variety, and diction with shorter pieces. Follow the directions for a 15 sentence portrait.
Select an image (real or imagined). It can be a person, people, or a place.
Write through a cinematic lens and capture the moment. Zoom in and out.
Brush stroke techniques (see your handout) work well here.
Go back and revise, varying your compound, complex, simple, and compound-complex sentences.
Read it aloud. Revise the sentence length to achieve the rhythm you want.
Read it aloud. Revise word choice for precision.
Read it with two different colored pencils or pens. Alternate every sentence with a different pen color. Count your sentences. Revise.
Practice these techniques with your writing. Select images from the National Geographic's Photo of the Day. Follow the link and use the "previous" link in the top right corner for viewing several pictures. After you settle on one image you really like, copy and paste it into your wiki page and experiment with different camera angles and brush strokes.
Writing through a camera: Writers don't have the luxury of an actual camera on the page. They must use grammatical structures, word choice, metaphor, and other techniques to create the same effect and make a movie in the reader's mind.
Using camera angles, creates perspective. Download "Writing Cinematically" to help you craft engaging prose that captures your reader.
The Elements of Effective Digital Storytelling:
(Adapted from the Center for Digital Storytelling)
Point: Your purpose and point of view. Your chance to convey a message. Storytellers do this by writing from the heart and not just the head. A movie trailer captures the main message of a movie. If your point is clear in an essay, your reader should be able to sum up your point.
Voice: Your fingerprint. Your personality. Your voice comes through when you are honest in your writing and express your ideas confidently.
Audience: Consider the purpose of your writing. When filmmakers make movies, they have an audience in mind. Who is your audience? Is there something you want your audience to feel, think, or do differently after reading your essay?
Soundtrack: Okay. In a movie the soundtrack is obvious. It's the tone that sets the mood. Well, you can't do that with music in your essay, but you can do it through word choice and style, sentence structure, figurative language, and sound devices.
Imagery: When filmmakers shoot scenes they consider symbols, abstractions, and ideas as much as they consider representing the actual event.
Create a Digital Story from Your Essay:
Sharpen your prose by practicing poetry:
Work on word choice, figurative language, and descriptive writing through poetry.- Write a 6-Room poem (click on the link for directions and examples).
Paint a Portrait
This is a great exercise for practicing revision, sentence variety, and diction with shorter pieces. Follow the directions for a 15 sentence portrait.- Select an image (real or imagined). It can be a person, people, or a place.
- Write through a cinematic lens and capture the moment. Zoom in and out.
- Brush stroke techniques (see your handout) work well here.
- Go back and revise, varying your compound, complex, simple, and compound-complex sentences.
- Read it aloud. Revise the sentence length to achieve the rhythm you want.
- Read it aloud. Revise word choice for precision.
- Read it with two different colored pencils or pens. Alternate every sentence with a different pen color. Count your sentences. Revise.
Variation: A 15 Sentence Portrait PoemStoryboard your essay.
Painting your canvas:
Practice these techniques with your writing. Select images from the National Geographic's Photo of the Day. Follow the link and use the "previous" link in the top right corner for viewing several pictures. After you settle on one image you really like, copy and paste it into your wiki page and experiment with different camera angles and brush strokes.
http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/Brushstrokes
Writing through a camera: Writers don't have the luxury of an actual camera on the page. They must use grammatical structures, word choice, metaphor, and other techniques to create the same effect and make a movie in the reader's mind.
The Elements of Effective Digital Storytelling:
(Adapted from the Center for Digital Storytelling)